Sony Boss Talks Down PS3 Delays

If you want to believe Sony, the PlayStation 3 really will be here in March, and the rumours be damned.

The PlayStation 3 has had a difficult birth in North America and Japan, but there are signs that Sony's troubles are coming to an end. Europeans, however, could still be waiting for a while.

Though Sony was quick to quell talk of a delay following company vice president Phil Harrison's reservations about meeting the slated March release timeframe, a new report suggests it could be even later than that.

Unnamed sources told CVG that the European PlayStation 3 launch could be delayed until April or even as late as September - 10 months after the Japanese debut.

The official word is very different. "We're still on schedule to launch PS3 in March throughout the PAL territories and all speculation otherwise is without foundation," Sony's David Reeves told quasi-unofficial blog ThreeSpeech.

Despite this ostensible confidence, Sony has not yet decided on a specific launch date for the PlayStation 3 in Europe, something that could deter those considering an Xbox 360 purchase this Christmas.

Sony's David Karraker said this week that the component shortages that have plagued PlayStation 3 production, "have been resolved", according to a report at Gamasutra.

Karraker was commenting on the early performance of the console, which is in shorter supply than even Sony had promised. The company said it would have 400,000 PlayStation 3s ready for the US launch but figures from NPD Group showed Sony had only managed to sell 197,000 consoles during November.

In Japan, supply is still constraining sales, but the PlayStation 3 has already marked its first milestone there, outselling the year-old Xbox 360 there in just three weeks, according to numbers from Media Create.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo